HONOLULU -- Former Icon Sport middleweight champion Jason Miller put on a dominant performance at the Kingdom MMA premiere on Saturday at the Blaisdell Arena, as he submitted Hawaiian brawler Kala Hose with a rear-naked choke in the first round.

“Mayhem” made his intentions to stand and trade with the dangerous striker known before the bout, but with a rematch against Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza looming on the horizon, the submission savvy Miller succumbed to better game planning in the moments leading up the fight.

The two middleweights engaged each other on the feet early in the fight. The shorter Hose, who gained much notoriety after scoring a technical knockout over Phil Baroni in a brutal five-round war in March 2008, tried to engage Miller in a similar battle. The longer Miller kept the Hawaiian at bay with kicks for the most part, but when Hose closed the distance, he landed a sharp counter left hook.

“My initial plan was to go in there and stick him,” Miller said. “My corner kind of convinced me here in the locker room, like, ‘Hey, idiot, don’t go in there and get busted up if you can get through this fight clean.’”

Pushing Hose into the ropes, Miller (22-6) took his opportunity, scored the single-leg takedown and quickly moved to mount, where he began dishing out a vicious ground-and-pound assault of punches and hammerfists.

“I did something I didn’t want to do, which is give up my back,” Hose said.

Miller wasted little time slipping on the rear-naked choke and squeezed until Hose (7-3) was forced to tap out at 2:23 of the first round.

“I thought I was gonna finish him with the strikes,” Miller said. “I hit him with a few good shots that hurt my damn hand, so I was, like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna knock him out,’ but he had a hard head; he was a tough dude. He gave his back to me, and you don’t give your back to me. That’s what I’m the best at.”

Meanwhile, Ricky Wallace proved not much had changed since his first meeting in the ring with Brandon Pieper, as he needed only 44 seconds to submit his opponent with a rear-naked choke. Wallace submitted Pieper with a guillotine choke in a little more than 30 seconds in March 2008.

Wallace (4-3) snapped a two-fight losing streak with the victory. Pieper (4-7) has lost six of his last eight fights.

In other action, Tasi Edwards and Pisa Tivao battled it out in the ring for a grueling 15 minutes. The match saw the fighters fall through the ropes and onto the floor, not once but twice.

Undeterred by the unexpected tumbles, the rookie competitors continued fighting. When all was said and done, Edwards had earned a unanimous decision victory.